. I finally corrected the
first third of the old volume, which will appear on July 1st. I hope and
think I have somewhat improved it. Very many thanks for your remarks;
some of them came too late to make me put some of my remarks more
cautiously. I feel, however, still inclined to abide by my evaporation
notion to account for the clouds of steam, which rise from the wooded
valleys after rain. Again, I am so obstinate that I should require very
good evidence to make me believe that there are two species of Polyborus
(317/2. Polyborus Novae Zelandiae, a carrion hawk mentioned as very
common in the Falklands.) in the Falkland Islands. Do the Gauchos there
admit it? Much as I talked to them, they never alluded to such a fact.
In the Zoology I have discussed the sexual and immature plumage, which
differ much.

I return the enclosed agreeable letter with many thanks. I am extremely
glad of the plants collected at St. Paul's, and shall be particularly
curious whenever they arrive to hear what they are. I dined the other
day at Sir J. Lubbock's, and met R. Brown, and we had much laudatory
talk about you. He spoke very nicely about your motives in now going
to Edinburgh. He did not seem to know, and was much surprised at what I
stated (I believe correctly) on the close relation between the Kerguelen
and T. del Fuego floras. Forbes is doing apparently very good work about
the introduction and distribution of plants. He has forestalled me in
what I had hoped would have been an interesting discussion--viz., on the
relation between the present alpine and Arctic floras, with connection
to the last change of climate from Arctic to temperate, when the then
Arctic lowland plants must have been driven up the mountains. (317/3.
Forbes' Essay "On the Connection between the Distribution of the
Existing Fauna and Flora of the British Isles and the Geological Changes
which have affected their Area," was published in 1846. See note, Letter
20.)

I am much pleased to hear of the pleasant reception you received at
Edinburgh. (317/4. Sir J.D. Hooker was a candidate for the Chair of
Botany at Edinburgh. See "Life and Letters," I., pages 335, 342.) I
hope your impressions will continue agreeable; my associations with auld
Reekie are very friendly. Do you ever see Dr. Coldstream? If you do,
would you give him my kind remembrances? You ask about amber. I believe
all the species are extinct (i.e. without the amber has been doctored),
and certainly t